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The once and future Torah
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The JCC celebrates Jewish Book Month
The Mandel JCC Festival of Jewish Books & Authors runs through Nov. 23. The CJN staff has reviewed this year’s festival’s featured books. All author events take place at The Mandel JCC unless otherwise indicated. For tickets to paid events, 866-546-1358 or www.clevejcc.org. For reservations to free events, 216-593-6235.
How to Read the Bible. By James L. Kugel. Free Press, a division of Simon & Shuster Inc. New York. 2007. 689 pp. $35.
Moses probably didn’t part the Red Sea. At least not originally.
Rather, many biblical scholars now believe that in early drafts of Exodus, the Egyptians pursuing the fleeing Israelites perished in a storm at sea. The more exciting and mystical version we all know and love may have developed later … during rewrites.
This kind of re-examination of the Torah’s origins is at the heart of James L. Kugel’s How to Read the Bible. Kugel focuses on the relatively recent “quiet revolution” in scholarship that has yielded interpretations of biblical stories and the history behind them substantially different from traditional views.
The step-by-step tour through the Torah is based on an introductory course the Harvard professor has taught for many years. Kugel juxtaposes ancient and modern ways of reading the Bible, resulting in what Publisher’s Weekly describes as a “jarring journey for those schooled in traditional views, but what emerges is a fresh, even strange, and very rich view.”
James L. Kugel speaks Tues., Nov. 18, at 7:30 at Siegal College. Free, but reservations required.
– M.H. Zitelli
How to Read the Bible. By James L. Kugel. Free Press, a division of Simon & Shuster Inc. New York. 2007. 689 pp. $35.
Moses probably didn’t part the Red Sea. At least not originally.
Rather, many biblical scholars now believe that in early drafts of Exodus, the Egyptians pursuing the fleeing Israelites perished in a storm at sea. The more exciting and mystical version we all know and love may have developed later … during rewrites.
This kind of re-examination of the Torah’s origins is at the heart of James L. Kugel’s How to Read the Bible. Kugel focuses on the relatively recent “quiet revolution” in scholarship that has yielded interpretations of biblical stories and the history behind them substantially different from traditional views.
The step-by-step tour through the Torah is based on an introductory course the Harvard professor has taught for many years. Kugel juxtaposes ancient and modern ways of reading the Bible, resulting in what Publisher’s Weekly describes as a “jarring journey for those schooled in traditional views, but what emerges is a fresh, even strange, and very rich view.”
James L. Kugel speaks Tues., Nov. 18, at 7:30 at Siegal College. Free, but reservations required.
– M.H. Zitelli
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